Exotic fish focus on Ireland

Global warming is being credited with attracting exotic aquatic visitors to Ireland.

Climbing seawater temperatures have brought more and more unusual fish species into Irish coastal waters.

The clownfish, blue tang, shark, sea turtle and the angler fish – many of which were featured in last year’s Finding Nemo film, set on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – are now to be seen in the Mara Beo aquarium, in Dingle, Co Kerry.

So much so that the aquarium has even established a “Nemo” quarter, complete with a coral environment.

Not all of the Mara Beo exhibits came here of their own accord – some of the tropical species were imported.

But warmer sea temperatures have been cited as the main reason for a marked change in marine activity off Ireland’s coastline – a development reflected in sightings logged over the last few months by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group.

As the year neared its end, fishermen and scientists reported increasing numbers of pilot whales – as well as “hundreds” of common dolphins on the prawn grounds west of the Aran Islands, not to mention a rare killer whale.

While Mara Beo does not pretend that all its tropical “Nemo” fish are indigenous, it also displays examples of Ireland’s own deep-water coral reefs in the Atlantic.

One of its latest local deep-water acquisitions has been named Dracula – a fang-tooth fish brought into port by a deep-water skipper last month.

The mini-predator, equipped with fangs on its tongue as well as its mouth, was caught some 200 miles off the coastline at a depth of around 1,200 metres.

As if to underscore the changes apparently taking place around the Irish coast, its normal environment is some 5,000 metres deep in the South Atlantic.